Hi, Here is my training log, its not set in stone yet, so any advice is appreciated etc. Day 1: Chest and Back Warm Up HIIT on treadmill, 400m @ 7km/h, 15 mins at 30s intervals between 7.5km/h and 14km/h Bench Press Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Pectoral Flies Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Rear Deltoids Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Seated Row Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Reverse Sit Up Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ 8kg Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ 8kg Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ kg Day 2: Legs Warm Up HIIT on treadmill, 400m @ 7km/h, 15 mins at 30s intervals between 7.5km/h and 14km/h Squats Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Leg Press Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Leg Extension Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Glute - Both legs Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Day 3 - Shoulders and Arms Shoulder Press Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Lat Pull Downs Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Tricep Push Down Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Dumbbell Bicep Curls Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Front Incline Dumbbell Raise Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Rotating Dumbbell Shrugs Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Trampoline Over Head Throws 3 Sets of 20 Throws at 5kg Wrist Curls Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Inverted Wrist Curls Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM Full Wrist Twists Set 1 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 2 - 8-12 Reps @ ~75% 1RM Set 3 - Reps until Failure @ ~75% 1RM For Now I've just listed the Exercises I'm doing, I'll fill in some actual weights after lunch. I'll note now that some of my 1RM are affected by a dodgy wrist, so some weights might seem low, things like bicep curls hurt my wrist quite a lot so the weight is lower than perhaps it should be in relation to other exercises (hence the wrist exercises to try and improve my wrist strength) What I'm Hoping to Achieve I have two main goals - Cardio and Weight Loss. Cardio My 1st Kyu Grading Nearly killed me, it was a very hot day and I was pushed extremely hard and had to go a lot faster than I was really comfortable, I had to stop half way through to take a break to avoid passing out. This time Next year I will be doing my Shodan Grading, and it is supposed to be at least twice as hard, physically, than the 1st Kyu. I don't want my fitness to be a limiting factor in the grading. Weight Loss I am an awkward size, a lot of my weight is in my legs, from lots of cycling a couple of years ago, before I started diet and gym I was floating around 105kg, this put me up against the heavy weights in compeitions, but my upper body strength could not compete with some of the muscle heads I was competing with - one guy had biceps almost the size of my thighs . . . This will be made more apparent if I do take the step into the cage, so I'm hoping to drop down to more of a Lightweight weight - so for now my target is 93kg I am currently 97kg. I'll report back after my lunch break...
For warmup (I'm not sure where I got this) about 5 minutes of cardio is enough. So running, rowing, skipping, kettlebell swinging, even the main exercise with an unloaded bar is often the only warmup a lot of people do in the weight room, that and some mobility exercises. Then you'll have more energy for exercise. I would also do less reps more sets for the compound lifts. If strength isn't your goal you should be able to whizz through your sets then do more intense cardio at the end for weight loss
How many sets of how many reps? Spoke to the gym manager last night and he suggested adding pull ups and dead lifts to my back routine, and is going to have a look at my seated rows next time I'm in, as I think I'm doing them wrong =/ I also forgot to add that I stretch the relavent muscles before and after my work out and usually spend 15-20 mins on the punch bag and battle ropes for a bit of warm down cardio.
There are other more qualified S&C specialists on here, but the short answer is it would vary according to what exercise. For instance, at the gym before Wendler531 I was doing mostly 5x5 for all barbell exercises, which is okay as standard, would be okay with less reps for Deadlift; while cable, dumbbell and bodyweight exercises would benefit from more reps and less sets. I would do Tricep pushdowns 3x20 as for many cable and floorbased bodyweight exercises. I struggled on Pullups/Chinups/Dips, though if you're strong enough 10-15 is good, any more would be with added weight.
14.12.12 - Legs Due to work xmas party tonight I had to squeeze today's gym session into my lunch break, which I couldn't run over as I need to leave on time tonight so couldnt make up any time then like I usually would. Depending how my legs feel tomorrow I might see if I can fit the bits I missed in tomorrow when I'm doing my shoulders and arms. Treadmill - HIIT over 11 mins, bouncing between 7kph and 13 kph (bit slower than usual due to hefty new leg exercise someone decided to get us to do at jujitsu last night - and shorter than usual because of time restraints - I'll make it up with dancing tonight =p) Squats - Still new to these so still trying to find the right weight to rep etc, but difficulty wise todays reps seemed good, going to get someone to check my form is ok tomorrow though. 1 - 10 reps at 70kg 2 - 10 reps at 70kg 3 - 12 reps at 70kg Leg Press 1 - 10 reps at +100kg 2 - 10 reps at +100kg 3 - 13 reps at +100kg (not sure off the top of my head how much the block weighs on its own, got a feeling its around 40kg, not sure) Standing Barbell Calf Raises 1 - 10 reps at 40kg 2 - 10 reps at 40kg 3 - 15 reps at 40kg Straight Box Jumps - Platform set to top of 2nd rung (about knee height - was a touch low) 1 - 10 jumps 2 - 10 jumps 3 - 10 jumps
15.12.12 - Shoulders and Arms Was a bit of a forced gym session, 8am the morning after the work xmas party... was a fun one. with the day before's leg exercises and the training night before that doing jumping lunges, my legs were like jelly, all i could manage was a medium paced walk on the tread mill, so didn't do as much cardio as I'd have liked. Treadmill - 25 kCal burnt (lol) Shoulder Press 3 Sets of 10 Reps at +20kg per arm (I think the "machine" weighs about 5kg per arm before adding weights) Assissted Chin Ups - Wide 3 Sets of 10 Reps at -55kg (first time using this bit of kit, was surprised at how hard they were considering I usually lift more easier on the lat pull down =/ but I'm told chin ups are a better all round exercise?) Tricep Pull Down 3 Sets of 10 Reps at 45lbs/21kg Biceps 1 Set of 10 Reps using 10kg dumbbells 2 Sets of 10 Reps at +12.5kg using the standing Bicep Curl Thingy (Like this but standing using the otherside to the one shown here if that makes sense) Front Incline Shoulder Raise (and over head) 3 Sets of 10 Reps at 4kg Shrugs 2 Sets of 10 Reps at 8kg per arm (one rotating forward and one back) 1 Set of 20 Reps at 8kg per arm (straight shrugs) Trampoline Over Heads 3 Sets of 20 throws at 5kg Wrist Curls 2 Sets of 12 Reps at 4kg each hand 1 Set of 30 Reps at 4kg each hand Inverse Wrist Curls 3 Sets of 15 Reps at 6kg each hand Wrist Twists 3 Sets of 15 Reps at 6 kg
17.12.12 - 23.12.12 - Mixed Week of fun. Due to various Christmas events, and an awesome Skindred gig which was on a gym night, I didn't get my usual gym sessions in last week. However at Jujitsu training on Monday night one of the other students ran the warm up and had brought his entire kettle bell collection with him and after a bit of cardio and stretching we spent about 30 minutes doing various kettle bell exercises, which combined with a pretty mental mosh pit at the aforementioned skindred gig covered a lot of the chest back and leg exercises :3 then I had to roll my friday and saturday gym sessions into one, so just covered as many compound routines as I could, unfortunately my phone was dead so didn't record the weights. But the exercises I did were: Squats Shoulder Press Assisted Chin Ups 2 Handed Kettle Bell Swings Bench Press Pectoral Flies Rear Deltoids I was going to do deadlifts as well, but I was alone in the gym and I still havent got the hang of how to do them (I can do one, but don't know how to then do the reps without actually putting the bar down each time - my knees get in the way so I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong - so plan to see the PT about it but I was the only one there at the time so left the deadlifts alone)
Have missed a couple of weeks of reporting logs, everything has been all over the place and my gym routine has been a tad hectic - I've still been going, just not on the usual days due to work hours and stuff, should be back on track this week. I wanted to mention that on saturday I went to do a bit of an all round work out. started with squats - something I'm relatively new to. I've been struggling with squats a bit, I feel that given my size and strength (especially leg strength) I should be lifting quite a lot. But on Saturday I started at 60kg plus the bar (which I'm pretty sure is 20kg - I just record the weight I'm adding to the bar on my phone) so around the 80kg mark. But when lifting that much, I can't quite get down low enough so my thighs are parallel with the floor, let alone any lower. After 30 reps of those (I realised on the last set of 10 how bad it was going considering I wasn't getting down low enough) I decided to try it with a lower weight, so just grabbed a 20kg kettle bell, and I did 30 reps (3x10) with that going all the way down until my bum was on my heels So I went back to the bar, took a 15kg weight off each end (so dropping it to 50kg) and again could manage it all the way for another 30 reps. is that about right? on the leg press (i figure vaguely similar?) I'm repping 120kg quite happily
If squats are new then like I said before you would be better doing them as 5 sets of 5 reps as you will get more rack position practice, strength gains can be made in the first 5 reps and technique often wavers beyond this when going into hypertrophy/endurance which can be useful, though I would be inclined to go up in weight with triples or doubles. I'm having to swallow some pride and drop the weight to get back technique after a gap of nearly 6 months since my last squat.
Yeh I appreciate that the technique is more important than the weight I'm lifting. I think I could find a weight between the 50kg I managed and the 80kg I didn't manage. My point/question was that I would've thought I should be able to do the 80kg easily, considering that on the leg press - what I would have thought is a similar leg motion etc I can happily rep 120kg I'm also going to book a session with the PT soon, as I've not seen a noticable increase in what I can lift in either the bench press - really not sure why on this one; or the shoulder press - but this is probably due to the fact that on the current weight I lift my shoulders are crunching all the way up which I've been told could be a rotatorcuff issue?
Leg Press is almost a pointless exercise. Rippetoe says it is for people who can't do a 1x bw Squat, suggesting it's for newbies and rehab. Of course that doesn't stop guys, and even the occasional girl from pressing anything from 80 to over 200kg http://vimeo.com/22735485 If you look at Steve's log he is also pressing over 200kg and squatting 120 or something like that. The massive difference makes sense because you need more positional strength and technique to do a Squat. I can Squat 20-30kg just with wearing a belt, same thing. I would ask Steve on his log as obv he is doing both for some reason
I really need to try and sort my routine out, I try to stick to doing set body areas on the 3 different gym trips, but I need to try and set the routine for each trip as I don't think its ever been the same for more than 2 weeks lol I keep adding or taking away things as people keep telling me things >_< I shall work on finding the highest weight I can do a proper squat on, and go from there. I just figured it would be more comparable to my Leg Press. (I suppose if I'm doing Squats, Deadlifts and Kettlebell Swings I probably don't need Leg Presses as well...)
You may be like me, limited in what equipment is available depending on when you get in the gym, so it is always worth having alternatives in mind. So a generic plan is good. If I couldn't get on the squat rack or power cage I would likely try some cleans and Front Squat, and maybe some Leg Press to finish.
its not too much of an issue, apart from on my friday gym sessions when I am time limited. otherwise I just wait until the equipment I want is free (usually doing something else in the mean time) Hopefully I can get something a little more set in stone once I've seen the PT...
Haven't really posted in my log for a while (I'm sorry I'll go do some squats in the corner...) But don't worry I've been keeping up the training! I eventually had that meeting with the PT, he said on the whole my routine was pretty solid, it was good I was mixing up exercises and he showed me a couple more things to add in (twists and lunges specifically) He also suggest I change the reps/sets to 3 sets of 6 heavy reps. Which I've been doing up until now, and I've had some excellent results. However there is a but to my update... One of my main goals was weight loss. I'm aiming for the 92kg/205lb/14st5 area (light heavyweight) and depending how that goes possibly a little lighter still. I started off at 105-110kg (roughly - probably shoud've recored a starting weight lol) and I've dropped down to the 97kg area quite happily. Unfortunately I've been 'stuck' there for about a month now. I'm definitely looking better physically, I've lost fat and put on muscle - which of course is a good thing. But I think I'm swapping one for the other and just maintaining weight. So starting yesterday I'm making a few changes, to see how that effects things. I'd got 'comfortable' with the amount I was eating, so I'd stopped actively counting calories because I was generally eating the right amount each day without having to check things up etc. So I'm back on the calorie counting, and I've dropped the calories down a bit more (partially because my weight is a fair bit lower than my starting value - and partially to try and put more of a dent in it) The other thing I'm going to try is switching to lower weight higher rep work outs to try and slow down the muscle mass a bit (plus endurance was my other goal, so should help there I figure?) Not quite sure exactly what rep:weight ratio I'm going to go with yet, shall see how things feel at the gym tonight.
